Dear Sir: I am cc-ing the message to the Redhat Linux list, as it was this list that brought your article "And now for something completely different: Linux" to my attention. I feel very strongly about Linux as an operating system, the one that I use on my home computer, and felt that some points in your article deserved discussion and clarification. Number one: The tone of your article implied that Linux is a wasteland with no support: that 'like Unix, you sort of have to figure it out for yourself.' While you may have found it so, By doing a quick search on the web and by glancing throught the usenet groups, as well as by querying a number of mailing lists I have managed to put together a system I am VERY proud of at home (Not bad for a philosophy grad. with little technical experience.) I have managed to learn how to install and configure the "apache" web server, sendmail, ssh (secure shell) and how to restrict services. I did not know how to do these before, some wonderful patient people online took their own time and either told me how, or told where I could find the info I needed. All of this was FREE. Turn around time from posing the question to getting a solution that worked was on average 2 hours, with a best time of 15 minutes and a worst time of 4 hours. I dont know, Mr. Dodge, if you have ever called any competing operating system's support line and spent 2 hours or more waiting for help only to be told that "it's a hardware problem" or " for tech support it will cost ..." or "we dont support that anymore". It's VERY frustrating. Or, Mr. Dodge, have you ever been told: "you need to upgrade your hardware to use this software". Its easy to say upgrade upgrade upgrade but that costs money. On the other hand, I know, my ISP uses 4 Linux boxes as web servers, radius authentication servers, secure web transaction servers, DNS all on 486 machines. All with NO downtime since they were booted. At home I am running a web server ( as I mentioned above) and a number of other servers...all with minimal knowledge. Number 2: I don't only run Linux at home. I must, because of my job constraints and a boss who is not open to suggestion, run other operating systems at times. Linux as you have noted "religiously observes hard disk partitions and won't interfere with other applications and OSes [you] might have." The other OS I use, as you, yourself, note required a lot of tech support and tweaking and caused a lot of problems. Some drivers conflicted, others were corrupted, some pieces of harware required new drivers and then caused my system to hang. You are correct to be fearful when running other OSes, as you say: "Understand, though: I have a PC, and when you get one of those running right, you don't touch a thing." Mine still doesn't run right under the other OS. I have tried to get support for it and the peripherals only to be told that "it's a bug", "it will be fixed in the next release", "you need to upgrade" or the infamous "it's a hardware problem, we don't deal with hardware problems." Linux, on the other hand,has run correctly out of the box (yes, there are boxed versions of Linux available, specifically Redhat and Caldera to name 2). My word processor at home is a trial version of Wordperfect 7.0 running on RedHat 5.1. It installed out of the box. I like it so much I may purchase it. If not RedHat distributes applix-ware office suite, and Caldera comes packaged with Staroffice. One may also dowload Staroffice from the internet for free. My point is Mr. Dodge, that I am a relative computer newbie, with little experience in "hacking" or programming and yet I run a Linux site. I prefer it, as it make my life easier. I am learning to use the computer as a tool, not just as a glorified arcade machine (although Doom and Quake for example, have been ported to Linux). I am not a programmer (although I have learned to edit Makefiles and to compile software). I am not a system administrator (but I am learning to use and administer a system at home.) I am no network engineer (but I have configured TCP/IP and SAMBA to my LAN at home). And it was simple and fun. The support I got was fast reliable and FREE. Respectfully, Joel West -- PLEASE read the Red Hat FAQ, Tips, Errata and the MAILING LIST ARCHIVES! http://www.redhat.com/RedHat-FAQ /RedHat-Errata /RedHat-Tips /mailing-lists To unsubscribe: mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe" as the Subject.
